A/N: Yeah, yeah, another "OC falls into Aladdin" story. Well, I've been tossing the idea around (By the way, the "Don't Rub The Lamp!" series by Midnight Gypsie is the best of the ones I've seen, so you should go read that next) and since the viewers of the Nostalgia Chick voted Aladdin as the hottest animated guy, how could I resist?
Summary: Cleo is a bored orphan girl. She never expected that wishing upon a star would do anything, but even if it had, she'd never imagine becoming a street girl in the Arabian desert and falling for a street boy. How can you tell a boy you love him, when you want to help him charm his true princess?
Disclaimer: Walt Disney Studios owns the movies and characters. Jessie J owns "Price Tag". Emilie Autumn owns "Fight Like A Girl." And finally, Warner Bros owns the wishing star song, which I took from the direct-to-video feature "Wakko's Wish".
Now, that's done. On to the story!
I can't really remember my parents. They died when I was three, and I was left, stuck in a children's home. remembered a few voices, but not much else. I never cried, though. I sort of miss my parents, even now, but I got accustommed to not having them with me since I didn't have proper self-awareness at the time they died.
OK, on to the Home. It was never like those orphanages you read about in books – like that hypnotist orphan girl kids' story. The carers were kind, the social workers tried to understand problems, and the other kids were usually OK. It was like Sedgemoor with younger kids, that place where you got to live in a regular house with carers, except that it was teeming with toddlers, elementary-age kids, and preteens as well as teenagers.
I never really had any close friends. I hung out with some of the girls my age (I'm sixteen, seventeen next month), but I was isolated right from the beginning, because of my name. It's Cleo Sparks. Yeah, I'm sure you're laughing. It doesn't even sound like a real name – people are always calling me "magazine girl" because of the mag, or "cat girl" because of the book about the cat called Cleo. Sometimes people call me "Queen" because it's an abbreviation of Cleopatra. I've always hated it.
There was this one memory that seemed to stick. It was some movie, animated, I think. It was definitely in the Home, though. I must've just come. For as long as I can remember, the Home had movie nights every Saturday. No one had to join in, but most of the time, everyone did. Anyway, a lot of the time, it was Disney movies, from Snow White (tedious, and Snow had the most annoying voice), to Treasure Planet (what was Disney even thinking?). Tangled was OK, but I wasn't so interested, since I was fifteen by the time it came out. Likewise, The Princess and The Frog had a few good things, like the villain song, but I was getting way too old for Disney. But this memory of a Disney movie they'd only shown once or twice was stuck in my mind. I only remembered one or two things, which were fuzzy, and I longed to see just that one movie again, just so I could work out where they came from. I remembered some song – just one lyric: "I can open your eyes" and a girl with dark hair wearing hareem pants. That was virtually all I remembered, and I couldn't help wishing I could just be able to see it. But I think the Home lost that DVD or VCR, because I never saw those images or heard that song lyric again.
I couldn't wait until I was eighteen, then I'd be out of the Home and then I could do a lot more. I was simply ecstatic at the idea of being out on my own in the world. In the Home, there was no freedom, and without friends, I was pretty much a social outcast. I never got to go to any parties, I didn't get a chance to try alcohol or anything, and I didn't have a clue on what kind of makeup colours suited me. I usually tried for dark lipgloss, and then I knew I couldn't go wrong with mascara or eyeliner, provided I put the right amount on (but of course, I had to put it on after we left the Home, because they'd never let a girl walk into school while violating the no-makeup rule). As a result, I was a social failure, with no friends, no boyfriend, and no life.
But anyway, let me tell you what happened that strange day when I was catapulted out of this sucky life (you don't think it is? Try it) and into a life that was, for some time, much worse. Oh yeah, and I experienced heartbreak.
It was a movie night, as usual on Saturday. I was bored and had nothing better to do, so I decided to go see what movie they were showing, just to see if it was worth it. They had decided to show The Rescuers, a tedious film about a duo of mice who try to rescue a kidnapped orphan girl called Penny. No, it was not worth it, so I walked off – I mean, I might've stayed if they showed The Aristocats, simply because I liked the song "Everybody Wants To Be A Cat" and I just thought O'Malley was kind of funny, especially when he was shamelessly flirting with Duchess and then realized she had a daughter and two sons.
But, point aside, they were showing The Boring Rescuers so the little kids could understand what was going on, so I went back to the room I shared with Tracy and Gemma (though neither of them were there at that moment), and switched on my MP3 (I'd prefer an iPod shuffle but I have to take what I get) , listening to Price Tag, and then giving a chance to some music Trace had insisted on loading to my player. The songs were called "Girls! Girls! Girls!" and "Fight Like A Girl." I listened to the latter first.
"There is no such thing as justice," sang the very depressed-sounding alto singer, "All the best that we can hope for is revenge
A hostile takeover, an absolute rebellion to the end
This is our battle cry
I'm giving you a headstart,
You're going to need it, cause I fight like a girl."
This got me thinking. If this singer's definition of "fight like a girl" was such a positive one, then I definitely needed to fight like a girl. But how could I do that in Kid Central?
I heard the Disney logo music playing from downstairs, and on impulse, I looked out of the window to see the winter sky littered with stars. So if fate was asking me to wish upon a star, why shouldn't I? After all, "When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires will come to you."
I looked up at the star that called to me. It was a little dim. If it was a person, it would be the drab social failure like me, so it drew me in.
I sang the song I remembered from an old Warner Brothers film, giggling. "Twinkle, twinkle, wishing star, how I wonder where you are,
Out in space so bright and clear, can you see me way down here?
Let me pick the star that's right and pick the wishing star tonight.
Like finding a needle in a haystack, enney meeney miney mo and Jack
Wishing star, please hear my plea, grant one wish, one wish for me."
I smiled. "No Desire Fulfillment Facilitator for me. I wish I had some friends, something to fight for, a life."
I never wished to fall in love. Or to get another wish. I guess that the wishing star didn't hear me right. But it seemed to hear me. I didn't expect a response, but boy did I get one.
The star began to glow brighter, and suddenly, it nearly blinded me. I couldn't stand the blazing light and closed my eyes. Then I felt a sense of tumbling as the ground beneath me disappeared. I pressed my lips together, trying hard not to scream.
Before I hit the ground, I lost consciousness.
Well, there you go. That's Cleo. Please, please, PLEASE review? Cookies for all who do!
